by Joseph Carlson
There is a lot of info out there since No Man's Sky released last week. To really give a true review of the game I wanted to spend more time with the No Man's Sky before I gave my opinion. So here it is.
I guess the above sentence could have been written about the game as a whole. After a few delays and setbacks(as of writing this there is still bugs on PC that are stopping people from playing the game) and leaks we can finally discover what the universe has to offer us.
A LOT. Yeah, that about sums it up. The basic draw of the game is resource management. On every planet there is basic elements, Iron, Plutonium, Nickel, Gold, etc. the list is vast but it's important to remember that everyone seems to be valuable. From using Plutonium to power your ship thrusters to using Zinc to give your hazmat suit more power it's all important. You start the game with a mining gun that acts as a vacuum as you suck up minerals and deposit them in your suit storage or your ship.
Once you get your ship running you can go to any number of planets as long as you have fuel and then once you get your warp drive you can look at a very intimidating star map and travel to the center of the universe or follow a strange glowing red diamond called 'Atlas'. What does it want from you, should you follow it, or you can simple look at your star map and go off on your own.
When traveling through space you find several alien races and space stations. You can trade with them and even learn their language so that way the gibberish they speak to you actually become your native tongue later.
Most of the game is procedurally generated so getting tips online has been a bit of a hit or miss proposition. Some things that happen for some players don't happen for others. Or in different orders. The good thing about the procedural nature of the game is that when most things happen they seem to happen by chance. None of this feels cheap though, as most things that happen to me, like say being chased by pirates while I was trying to land on a space station only helped me to appreciate the game even more.
For all that's been said about the game the one thing that I think is great is the fact that for me, playing the game has been one of the most relaxing things I have done in a long time. I'm not really playing the game for combat. You can if you want. You can go after enemy ships in space and then if you land on a planet you can start killing everything in sight if you want. When the guardians of the universe come, their called sentinels you can even lay waste to them if you want to.
The best times I've had in the game have been when I've walked around a planet cataloguing lifeforms and uploading them to the galactic database for cash or finding rare minerals to sell or trade with alien traders or finding alien monoliths or ruins and learning more about 'Atlas' or alien races.
Every time I log in I think of nothing else and am completely in the moment. Even when I'm not playing it I'm thinking of playing it or I'm reading about it. I even hear the soundtrack in my head when I'm not playing the game.
When all you want to do is play a game even when your done with it that is something truly astonishing. If you'll excuse me I have to get my warp drive running so I can make another jump.
No Man's Sky is available at retail and digitally for the PS4 and is available on Steam.